Bitcointalk trust system is made for this purpose and by visiting anyone's trust page community users can easily get neceserry information about an specific user. Negative trusts with proper reference help community users to keep them far from getting scammed and positive trusts will let you know about trusted service.

Unfortunately you made the mistake and haven’t checked his trust page where already multiple negative trusts were given. Even there is a active flag on his profile which have mutiple DT support. Before taking any service from a newbie its always safer to use trusted escrow service. Anyway, i hope you will recover your losses soon.